North Carolina State University Athletics
Baseball Out of Conference for Two Games With Campbell
5/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
RALEIGH, N.C. Due to final exams, the NC State baseball team had no midweek games this week. The Wolfpack will return to Doak Field at Dail Park on Friday and Saturday this weekend for non-conference action against Campbell. Game times are 7 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.
NC State (29-16) will be looking to get its offense untracked. The Wolfpack has struggled at the plate in its last three Atlantic Coast Conference series, batting .248 and scoring 51 runs (5.7 per game) in its last nine conference games. The Pack has lost eight of its last 14 games overall, and five of its last six ACC games.
Campbell (10-35), meanwhile, has struggled all season. The Camels come into the weekend having won just three of their last 15 games. Campbell has four losing streaks of five games or more, including a 10-game streak and a seven-game streak. The Camels have had just one winning streak three games the entire season.
Both games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and online at gopack.com through Pack Pass.
NC STATE VS. CAMPBELL: NC State and Campbell have met 46 times in baseball, with the Wolfpack holding a 37-9 lead in the series. The Pack is 9-2 over the Camels since Elliott Avent became NC State’s head coach in 1997, including a 4-1 mark at Doak Field at Dail Park, and a 5-1 record in Buies Creek. NC State won the only meeting between the two teams a year ago, 13-7 on March 7 at Taylor Field in Buies Creek. Brian Aragon led the come-from-behind victory by the Pack, which trailed 7-3 after six innings. Aragon went 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Ramon Corona, Aaron Bates and Caleb Mangum all drove in two runs, and Andrew Taylor, the third of four Wolfpack pitchers, got the win with 1 2/3 shutout innings. Campbell’s last win in the series was a 9-1 victory in 2005.
THE ROTATION: Freshman righthander Sam Brown (0-0, 5.29) will get the start for NC State in Friday’s series opener. This will be Brown’s 12th appearances and his third start. He has worked 17 innings, allowed 19 hits, walked three and struck out 19. Brown tossed two scoreless innings in his last appearance, April 25 vs. UNC Wilmington, and has a 2.79 ERA over 9 2/3 innings in his last five appearances. Brown has a 3.38 ERA in his two starts, 6.17 in nine relief appearances. Senior righthander Blake Herring (3-7, 6.11) will start on Friday for Campbell.
Freshman righthander Nate Karns (2-2, 2.86) is slated to start Saturday afternoon’s finale for the Wolfpack. Karns has made seven appearances, six of them starts. He has allowed 13 hits, walked 13 and struck out 20 in 22 innings pitched. Following a rough debut March 6 at UNC Greensboro, Karns pitched well for three starts. Through his first four starts, Karns was 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA. His next appearance was a relief outing against then-top-ranked Florida State, and he walked the only two men he faced. In two starts since then, he has managed a more-than-respectable 1.93 ERA, but has only pitched 4 2/3 innings with four walks, two wild pitches and three hit batters. Senior righthander Quinn LeSage (1-7, 5.78) will take the ball for the Camels on Saturday.
RPI RANKINGS: The latest ratings performance index (RPI) rankings released April 30 by the NCAA show NC State on the move. The Wolfpack is No. 26 in the latest rankings, up from No. 29 the week before. Despite losing five of its last six ACC games, NC State has a strong overall record against teams in the upper portions of the RPI. The Pack is 5-4 against teams in the top 20 of the RPI, 7-5 against teams in the top 30, and 9-7 against teams in the top 40. NC State has three games remaining against Virginia (No. 14), three vs. Clemson (No. 24), plus at least three games in the ACC Tournament, meaning the Pack has a chance to continue to move up before the pairings for the NCAA Tournament are announced on May 28.
FULL HOUSE: Fans packed Doak Field in record numbers the weekend of April 27-29 to see NC State play North Carolina. The first game drew a Doak Field at Dail Park post-renovation record crowd of 2982, a record that lasted all of 24 hours. The crowd for the second game of the series was the first in the history of the new stadium to exceed 3000, as 3109 came through the turnstiles. The Sunday crowd was only 2683, which ranks as the sixth-largest crowd in the history of the stadium. Attendance for the three-game series was 8774, a new record for a three-game series at Doak Field at Dail Park.
ATTENDANCE NEWS: Following last weekend’s record-breaking series with North Carolina, NC State has drawn 30,362 fans to Doak Field at Dail Park this season, an average of 1167 fans for 26 home dates. Those attendance figures have not been helped by the extended winter weather this year or by the fact that the Wolfpack was on the road for four weekends in a five-week span in late March through mid-April. In nine home games in April, NC State drew 17,710 fans, an average of 1967 per game. If the Pack can maintain that average over the final six scheduled home games, then NC State will set a new single-season attendance record of 42,164 and a new per-game average of 1317. The current records are 41,846 and 1308, both set in 1995.
GRAND SLAMS: When Marcus Jones hit a grand-slam home run April 27 vs. North Carolina, it was the fourth grand slam by the Wolfpack this season. Ramon Corona hit one April 10 vs. William & Mary, Caleb Mangum hit a grand slam March 11 vs. Maryland, and Mike Roskopf hit a grand slam March 30 at Boston College. The school record for grand slams in a season is six, set in 1997, head coach Elliott Avent’s first year on the job. The Wolfpack hit no grand slams a year ago, hit two in 2005, four in 2004 and one in 2003.
NC State (29-16) will be looking to get its offense untracked. The Wolfpack has struggled at the plate in its last three Atlantic Coast Conference series, batting .248 and scoring 51 runs (5.7 per game) in its last nine conference games. The Pack has lost eight of its last 14 games overall, and five of its last six ACC games.
Campbell (10-35), meanwhile, has struggled all season. The Camels come into the weekend having won just three of their last 15 games. Campbell has four losing streaks of five games or more, including a 10-game streak and a seven-game streak. The Camels have had just one winning streak three games the entire season.
Both games will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and online at gopack.com through Pack Pass.
NC STATE VS. CAMPBELL: NC State and Campbell have met 46 times in baseball, with the Wolfpack holding a 37-9 lead in the series. The Pack is 9-2 over the Camels since Elliott Avent became NC State’s head coach in 1997, including a 4-1 mark at Doak Field at Dail Park, and a 5-1 record in Buies Creek. NC State won the only meeting between the two teams a year ago, 13-7 on March 7 at Taylor Field in Buies Creek. Brian Aragon led the come-from-behind victory by the Pack, which trailed 7-3 after six innings. Aragon went 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs. Ramon Corona, Aaron Bates and Caleb Mangum all drove in two runs, and Andrew Taylor, the third of four Wolfpack pitchers, got the win with 1 2/3 shutout innings. Campbell’s last win in the series was a 9-1 victory in 2005.
THE ROTATION: Freshman righthander Sam Brown (0-0, 5.29) will get the start for NC State in Friday’s series opener. This will be Brown’s 12th appearances and his third start. He has worked 17 innings, allowed 19 hits, walked three and struck out 19. Brown tossed two scoreless innings in his last appearance, April 25 vs. UNC Wilmington, and has a 2.79 ERA over 9 2/3 innings in his last five appearances. Brown has a 3.38 ERA in his two starts, 6.17 in nine relief appearances. Senior righthander Blake Herring (3-7, 6.11) will start on Friday for Campbell.
Freshman righthander Nate Karns (2-2, 2.86) is slated to start Saturday afternoon’s finale for the Wolfpack. Karns has made seven appearances, six of them starts. He has allowed 13 hits, walked 13 and struck out 20 in 22 innings pitched. Following a rough debut March 6 at UNC Greensboro, Karns pitched well for three starts. Through his first four starts, Karns was 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA. His next appearance was a relief outing against then-top-ranked Florida State, and he walked the only two men he faced. In two starts since then, he has managed a more-than-respectable 1.93 ERA, but has only pitched 4 2/3 innings with four walks, two wild pitches and three hit batters. Senior righthander Quinn LeSage (1-7, 5.78) will take the ball for the Camels on Saturday.
RPI RANKINGS: The latest ratings performance index (RPI) rankings released April 30 by the NCAA show NC State on the move. The Wolfpack is No. 26 in the latest rankings, up from No. 29 the week before. Despite losing five of its last six ACC games, NC State has a strong overall record against teams in the upper portions of the RPI. The Pack is 5-4 against teams in the top 20 of the RPI, 7-5 against teams in the top 30, and 9-7 against teams in the top 40. NC State has three games remaining against Virginia (No. 14), three vs. Clemson (No. 24), plus at least three games in the ACC Tournament, meaning the Pack has a chance to continue to move up before the pairings for the NCAA Tournament are announced on May 28.
FULL HOUSE: Fans packed Doak Field in record numbers the weekend of April 27-29 to see NC State play North Carolina. The first game drew a Doak Field at Dail Park post-renovation record crowd of 2982, a record that lasted all of 24 hours. The crowd for the second game of the series was the first in the history of the new stadium to exceed 3000, as 3109 came through the turnstiles. The Sunday crowd was only 2683, which ranks as the sixth-largest crowd in the history of the stadium. Attendance for the three-game series was 8774, a new record for a three-game series at Doak Field at Dail Park.
ATTENDANCE NEWS: Following last weekend’s record-breaking series with North Carolina, NC State has drawn 30,362 fans to Doak Field at Dail Park this season, an average of 1167 fans for 26 home dates. Those attendance figures have not been helped by the extended winter weather this year or by the fact that the Wolfpack was on the road for four weekends in a five-week span in late March through mid-April. In nine home games in April, NC State drew 17,710 fans, an average of 1967 per game. If the Pack can maintain that average over the final six scheduled home games, then NC State will set a new single-season attendance record of 42,164 and a new per-game average of 1317. The current records are 41,846 and 1308, both set in 1995.
GRAND SLAMS: When Marcus Jones hit a grand-slam home run April 27 vs. North Carolina, it was the fourth grand slam by the Wolfpack this season. Ramon Corona hit one April 10 vs. William & Mary, Caleb Mangum hit a grand slam March 11 vs. Maryland, and Mike Roskopf hit a grand slam March 30 at Boston College. The school record for grand slams in a season is six, set in 1997, head coach Elliott Avent’s first year on the job. The Wolfpack hit no grand slams a year ago, hit two in 2005, four in 2004 and one in 2003.
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